What?! A topic that isn't RtL related?! Hah... I can solo this game without an app! And so, we're gonna be moving along with a brand new campaign.

Now first off, you may recall that I was in the middle of a Shadows of Nerekhall campaign. While I MAY come back to that, I kind of got a bit bored with it. Maybe it was because seeing Changelings and Ynfearnal Hulks almost every quest got a bit boring, but it probably had more to do with the fact the heroes were pretty much steamrolling everything there. So.... it's time to move on.

Time to try and lay this vampire bi-er blonde to rest, so to speak.

For this go round I'll be using the following heroes:

Sir Valadir as Champion, Serena as a Bard, Grey Kher as a Shadow Walker and Challara as a Geomancer. Hmm, kinda a cool combination.

The Overlord will be starting out with Basic I and will be working with the new Ardus X' Erbus Agent and Plot Deck. Whoo! Hopefully I can get him into a quest with Alric Farrow. That might be devastating.

Tune to find out who wins the Intro.

Heirs of Blood Introduction- Acolyte of Saradyn

Goblins and Barghests swarm a near-defenseless group of travelers. The heroes must cut off the monsters reinforcements and break their morale before the beasts lay waste to the entire caravan.

The Heroes started off with Serena escorting the Acolyte. It dropped her to a whopping 2 Speed, but since her job was rescue the civilians anyway, it wasn't too much of a deterrent. Sir Valadir and Grey Kher set off north towards along the west pathway with Brightblaze, while Serena and Challara moved into the Fire Pit. The Overlord began his turn with two Dash Cards on the Goblins, allowing two of them to get onto the caravan tile as well as get en extra attack in. They didn't do any damage persee, but the other Goblins managed to take Brightblaze out while they moved among the male heroes. The Barghests moved onto the Ruins, keeping themselves away from the heroes. This turn netted the OL 1 Fatigue Token.

The Second Round for the heroes saw them clear out all the Goblins on the map. Serena moved into the Fire Pit, beginning her rescue of the civilians, while Challara used her heroic to summon Brightblaze back. They ended up taking out the Goblins in the Fire Pit while the Warriors ( I know Grey Kher is a scout) ended the rest of the minion Goblins. The OL's next turn consisted of keeping the Barghests away from the Warriors while spawning Goblins at the end of his turn.

The next Hero turn had the Fighters keep moving North while snagging Search Tokens. Sir Valadir moved into striking distance of a Goblin and killed him. The other Goblin lived however. The OL's next turn ended up being particularly viscous. The Barghests moved down into the Fire Pit. A Minion attempted to attack Serena, but Challara triggered Serena's hero ability, directing the attack at herself. She took 3 hearts of damage, but that allowed the Master Bargest to move close to her, one shotting her with one attack. As the Bargests moved in, so too did Goblins ( I really can't recall how but there were two on the board at the time.) Two of them over into the Fire Pit. Fatigue Count: 2

The Next turn saw Serena reviving Challara. Sir Valadir was kept busy cleaning out more spawning Goblins. The Ol turn however saw Challara being Koed again, Serena getting chomped herself and to make matters worse, the Master Goblin one shotted Brightblaze. Although the Heroes spend most of the next turn picking themselves back up, the Barghests moved off north up the western pathway, finally winding up on the initial starting tile. The heroes could not kill off enough Goblins to prevent the OL from gaining enough Fatigue tokens to win, their actions mostly wasted on Stand Ups.

OL wins the Quest.

Heroes receive 1 XP each and 125 Gold off Search tokens and a rescued Civilian. OL gets 4 Threat Tokens, 2 EXP and chooses "Seige of Skytower" as the Next Quest.

Couple Questions and clarifications:

-In regards to Brightblaze- He's treated as a figure, but not a hero figure. Can he Heal off hero abilities and can Goblins use Scamper to move in his space? My inclination is that he can't.

-Can the Shadow Soul be removed from the map if the Shadow Walker wishes to place a new one?

Review of Quest:

For an Introduction Quest designed to replace the Shadow Rune for the main game, this quest is very heavily Overlord favored. It really shouldn't be, especially if Fantasy Flight wants to get more people interested in playing proper Campaigns. More players enjoy playing hero players then the Overlord, so having new her players take a thrashing in the first quest just doesn't seem overly smart. How is this quest so OL favored? I'll give you a list as to why:

-One Hero receives a Speed Handicap at the beginning of the quest.

-The Target Monsters each receive a Health Boost.

-The Overlord gets to Spawn two Goblins for reinforcements every turn ( respecting limits.)

-Almost any Melee Hero will almost never get close enough to even attack the Barghests unless they have a Speed of 5 or Fatigue themselves The reason for this is because Barghests are Medium sized monsters with a Speed of 4 that can place their base on any square as long as one of the squares is a space they occupied when they ended their movement.

You could use the strategy of killing the Goblins every time they spawn, but one round of bad dice results will effectively destroy any chance of that. And if even one of your Heroes get Koed, you might as well just pick up as many Search tokens as possible and look forward to 'Siege of Skytower'. Good luck trying to even kill one Barghest, let alone four. I really don't know who play tested this quest, but I think FFG really dropped the ball on this one.

Hey Omnilash,

How do you actually solo these campaigns? Do you control entire board and decide moves for both OL and the heroes, or do you use some kind of in-house rules such as RedJak's automated overlord?

Thanks!

Couple Questions and clarifications:

-In regards to Brightblaze- He's treated as a figure, but not a hero figure. Can he Heal off hero abilities and can Goblins use Scamper to move in his space? My inclination is that he can't.

-Can the Shadow Soul be removed from the map if the Shadow Walker wishes to place a new one?

Although it is not explicitly stated, any familiars that are treated as figures are treated as hero figures. Due to this status, they are fully affected by all monster abilities, hero abilities, item effects, and Overlord cards.

However, any text in the quest book do not affect anything but the primary heroes.

So yes, Brightblaze can be healed by hero abilities, and goblins can scamper through him.

Whenever the Shadow Walker is given the ability to place the Shadow Soul on the map, he can take it from wherever it currently is on the map and reposition it.

You could use the strategy of killing the Goblins every time they spawn, but one round of bad dice results will effectively destroy any chance of that. And if even one of your Heroes get Koed, you might as well just pick up as many Search tokens as possible and look forward to 'Siege of Skytower'. Good luck trying to even kill one Barghest, let alone four. I really don't know who play tested this quest, but I think FFG really dropped the ball on this one.

I actually think this map has some of the best balance in the game. Every time I've played it, it is a very close matchup. Unless the Overlord is new or going easy on the heroes, the heroes generally cannot be greedy and try to acquire all the clergy man without risking throwing the quest. All hero hands need to be on deck. There may be an opportunity to get a few clergy if you have a hero that can multi-task effectively. Challara can fit that bill, as she can use her familiar and herself to hold the caravan tile down for awhile, barring bad rolls.

The heroes' first task, in addition to killing goblins that make it to the caravan, is to secure the tile the goblins spawn from. Since the goblins spawn at the end of the Overlord turn, the heroes have the opportunity to kill them every time without them having an opportunity to activate once they have this tile. This effectively ends the quest timer, and prevents the strategy of running the Barghests away from working.

However, if the Barghests hold their ground to protect the goblin spawn point, you have a proper battle, and it will come down to dice rolls and tactical skill.

Speed and range are pretty important when it comes to dealing with fleeing monsters, but this is a strategy every hero party must eventually become prepared for. The finale encounter of the entire campaign, "Blood and Betrayal 3" will severely punish any hero group that isn't capable of keeping up with a 5 speed monster that they have to kill at all costs. Hero parties without high speeds, long range, and powerful abilities to incapacitate or interrupt their targets will have a lot of trouble winning. They may not even be able to rely on standard conditions vs. clever Overlords who take cards like Ward of Peace.

Speed is king in a lot of Descent campaigns, the base-game ones especially

I will attempt it again sometime, perhaps you may be correct. Though I will say that speed should not always be the answer, specially if you're looking to employ more strategy. We will see, but this is the second time I've seen this quest been played and both times the heroes were destroyed.

Speed is not always the answer, its true. In fact, in some quests Speed makes little difference at all. However, having one or two very fast heroes, or speed enabling heroes (e.g. Syndrael) is a critical ingredient of an effective hero team in my view, particularly in Shadow Rune and Heirs of Blood, because many crucial quests are very hard to win without it.

The Campaign Phase-

OL Plays a Rumor Card Right Away, Looks like the next quest will be Oath of the Outcast.

Shopping Phase- the Heroes spend 125 gold on a Teleportation Rune for Challara. Should help boost her movement a bit on Surges. Sells off her Static Rune for 25 Gold.

Experience Phase- Sir Valadir picks up Glory of Battle, Serena gets Dissonance ( which boosts MPs on all heroes), Grey Kher picks up Faithful Friend and Challara gets Stone Tongue.

OL spend 3 out of 4 Threat tokens to pick up the *Undead Skeleton dude with the deer antlers helmet* Agent. He also pick up the PLan Ahead Universal Card and The Rings of Zhol'ahan EncanterI OL Card.

The Travel Phase- The only thing that occurs is the heroes attempting to harvest a dark glowing crystal. They all must pass Knowledge to pass. Unfortunately Grey Kher's 2 Knowledge attribute made him fail and now he's going into the quest with the Terrified condition.

Next up: Oath of the Outcast.

How do you play it solo?

How do you play it solo?

He does play both sides... the heros AND the OL. It is a bit like a chess player playing against himself.

To do that you have to keep in mind the Heros don't know the Hand of the OL and the OL and the heros have to try to do the "best possible solutions" at the time they do their turn.

That's kinda tricky, but Omnislash024 has been doing it with many maps (you can see his topics in the forum).... and they are not only actually pretty fun to read, they are also helpfull if you want to know stuff what comes up in the respective quests or just what other people think of it. (Omnislash024 almost always writes down his thoughts on what went "wrong" for either side... which is quiet helpfull if you want to play the respective quests)

How do you play it solo?

He does play both sides... the heros AND the OL. It is a bit like a chess player playing against himself.

To do that you have to keep in mind the Heros don't know the Hand of the OL and the OL and the heros have to try to do the "best possible solutions" at the time they do their turn.

That's kinda tricky, but Omnislash024 has been doing it with many maps (you can see his topics in the forum).... and they are not only actually pretty fun to read, they are also helpfull if you want to know stuff what comes up in the respective quests or just what other people think of it. (Omnislash024 almost always writes down his thoughts on what went "wrong" for either side... which is quiet helpfull if you want to play the respective quests)

Great, thanks for the reply!

Yes, basically my mindset is moving and performing other actions with the heroes while not knowing what the OL has in his hand. If the OL has a card that he can play on the Heroes turn, I will usually still think as if I were the hero.. what's the best course of action for them at the time? They sure aren't going to know a Tripwire is there for instance, so they'll move as they were intending to do so. In terms of playing as the OL as well, the mindset there is to look at the victory conditions and maneuver monsters and cards to best help him reach that objective. Each round requires strategy and then that just gets thrown out the window with ridiculous dice rolls.

Sometimes the OL wins, sometimes the heroes do. All in all, the experience can be somewhat slow, but that's because alot of critical thinking goes on. It gets tougher as hero abilities grow and start interacting with each other. I admit I don't always catch everything.

I'm going to use AtomAgeVampire's Descent Tracker Tool so people can keep track of what happens. Here's the current status:

http://d2etracker.com/campaign_overview.php?urlGamingID=85955958

Reminds me of me testing my magic deck by playing both sides.

A good way to imagine many of cases and adapter strategies.

It's also a good way to prepare for the times others are playing. Knowing the rules helps to expedite gameplay.

So true, and this game has so many. Nothing bog downs a game more than when my memory fails me and I have to check something real quick. It would help if the rest of my group wasn't so lazy and actually read the rule books themselves...

Omnislash024, have you ever played using Vassal or Table Top Simulator? I've been thinking of giving one of those a shot.

I haven't used any of those tools. I guess I just like plain old pencil and paper.

They're for playing the game online. Both of them simulate the table, pieces, cards. I think they don't have everything you need to avoid people playing for free. I have everything released so far so I'm not worried. I've been thinking of getting a group together from the forums for when my usual group can't get together.

They're for playing the game online. Both of them simulate the table, pieces, cards. I think they don't have everything you need to avoid people playing for free. I have everything released so far so I'm not worried. I've been thinking of getting a group together from the forums for when my usual group can't get together.

I see. Well, I can't really see me using them, since the whole point of playing a board game like this is to lay it out on the table. It would also be pretty problematic, what with the users on here probably having different schedules to play by. Even then, if the issues of rule disputes came up, I could see it holding the game up until it was resolved. Nah, a game like this is best played physically and with people around the table.

Oath of the Outcast Rumor Quest

It is said that the Tomb of the Twelve was created to hold the royal guard of an ancient lich-king. Their remains were bound in sacred linens and sealed in urns of pure silver. A lone guardian ensures that these elite warriors do not rise again. Unjustly banished, the Guardian swore to keep this burial ground in exchange for eternal life and the right to reclaim the honor that was lost.

Unfortunately it seems the Guardian has vanished and malevolent forces seem to be at work to revive the undead. Razorwings are attempting to carry various urns away from the mountains. The only way is through the advancing heroes, who must keep them from stealing too many remains. Not all the urns however contain remains... some of them house spiders of all shapes and sizes.

As a note for this solo playthrough: I am changing the rules a bit slightly. During the start of each OL turn, he must put a Razorwing on the exit and a token of his choice ( Blue or red) underneath it's base to indicate the Razorwing is carrying an urn. A hero can investigate ( test knowledge) an urn once it's been dropped by a defeated monster. Otherwise the Hero must smash the urn (and hope it's not red.) Any monster will carry an urn if it moves onto a space containing an unrevealed image token. To be objective in this playthrough however, The colors of the urns shall be unknown to the OL as well.

On the last quest, it was observed that the heroes were in a real need of a speed boost. The purchase of a Teleportation Rune for Challara and the Dissonance ability for Serena was thought to maybe help with this problem. Indeed at the start of the quest, it seemed as if this was the case as the heroes moved quite swiftly across the water and waylaid the initial group of Beastman.

With that starting group toasted, The OL started his first turn, placing a Razorwing on the exit, then playing Dash moving him up next to the Lava. The Bane Spiders moved towards the Lava area to create a blockade to the throne room, while two Beastman were reinforced at the end of each OL turn. With one Beastman at the entrance and other appearing next to the pit space, The heroes were now set to be assaulted from both sides.The OL played Ring of Zhol' ahan on the Beastman group, ensuring that every Beastman that was defeated would cause one Heart of Damage to any hero within two spaces of it. This would effectively balance against Serena's Song of Mending.

The Heroes moved into the Lava area, Challara placing a Stone on the corridor to narrow the entrance way behind them. Grey Kher and Sir Valadir moved forward, taking out the Razorwing, forcing him to drop the urn. Unfortunately the heroes could not investigate worth anything, but they were able to smash the urn and recover some remains. 1-0 Heroes.

At this point, the quest pretty much remained in this general area. Beastman charged the heroes from both sides effectively causing them enough delays to keep them busy there. The heroes however were very effective at killing monsters, with Grey Kher's Shadow Soul and Sir Valadir handing out Champion tokens left and right. Even one heart on a monster would be enough to cause 3 hearts of damage, so anything above that was usually enough to kill anything in the general area. Senera switched Dissonance to causing 1 damage on any monster activation, keeping Song of Mending on healing hearts at the end of her turn.

Challara and Brightblaze kept the area cleared of incoming monsters. Unfortunately the master Bane Spider moved in with a Frenzy attack. It was able to hit Valadir and Brightblaze for some damage, poisoned Brightblaze and wrapped up Valadir and Grey Kher into Cocoons, immobilizing them. The OL also sought to group up the Razorwings, attempting to fly past the heroes with two of them instead in the hopes of getting an urn.

The heroes were able to kill the Razorwings, but couldn't investigate one of the urns properly. They smashed it, which turned out to be bad as suddenly they were surrounded by a full group of Cave Spiders! This required yet more of their attention, as they sought to clear the area of the newcomers. During this fracas however, Serena finally rolled a passed investigation test and found a Blue urn. 2-0.

Although the heroes were piling bodies upon bodies of dead monsters, the fighting was starting to take it's toll. Challara was the first to succumb, being KOed by a cave Spider. Brightblaze also gave into the poison. She was not out of it however, as she was revived by Serena. She then brought back Brightblaze, put down Stone on one of the spaces of the corridor leading to the Throne room and then let her Stone defeat another Razorwing.

As the fighting continued, the OL moved a minion Bane Spider in between the red blocked terrain. This was so he could effectively build up his Razorwings. With the last of the Razowrings placed in the board and no more objective tokens left, he tried for one final push with all of them. The heroes attempted attacks on them as they flew by, though their die rolls ended up either being extremely weak of just plain misses. They were still able to damage boost enough to kill a few of the Razorwings. The Beastman however were all too happy to grab the urns on the next OL Turn. To make matters worse, Sir Valadir finally succumbed to a Bane Spider attack, having taken too much damage over the course of the battle.

On the next turn however, Challara investigated and empty urn that was next to her. It turned out to be blue.

Heroes win Oath of the Outcast. They managed to snag a Search token which turned out to be a Stamina Potion, resulting in them only obtaining 25 Gold from the whole affair. However they stop the OL from gaining the "Unseen Wings" OL card ( a pretty powerful OL card IMO) and prevent him from drawing another Rumor Card. He does gain 1 Threat Token. 1 Threat, plus 2 more Koing 2 heroes and 1 for just playing the Rumor Card, the OL now has a Total of 5 Threat Tokens.

Since the OL did win the Introduction, the next main quest will still be "Siege of Skytower".

Campaign Phase:

Shopping Phase: Serena Buys a Phoenix Pendant for 50 gold leaving the heroes flat broke.

Experience Phase: The OL cashes in on 2 out of the 5 Threat tokens, gaining the Threatening Masses Plot Card.

Travel Phase: The Heroes encounter a lone knight who challenges them to a duel. While the knight is holding a very nice Mace of Aver, no one seems interested in the weapon and so they pass on the duel. Then they find a rune inscribed chest along the Road. The heroes pick up a Health Potion, after Serena and Sir Valadir pass both knowledge checks.

Next Quest: Siege of Skytower

The updated Campaign Tracker: http://d2etracker.com/campaign_overview.php?urlGamingID=85955958

How come your hero's didn't take the duel from the knight? I always thought the weapon (---> extra cash) outweights the risk of losing some hp before the next quest?

(Not sure, but in my groups the heros ALWAYS try to get the weapon, even if they don't need it... espacially if they have a bard, who heals the others anyway with his song...)

On another note: I actually love how you describe the fights... pretty impressive as always.

In retrospect: Probably should have. The cash would have helped. We'll chalk this one up to hero error.

I don't think it's always best to go for it especially if it's early in the campaign.

If you try for it, and don't get it, then you are down some HP, and no extra cash... if the quest you are heading to was chosen by the OL, that could start the snowball rolling.

I don't think it's always best to go for it especially if it's early in the campaign.

If you try for it, and don't get it, then you are down some HP, and no extra cash... if the quest you are heading to was chosen by the OL, that could start the snowball rolling.

Most of the time the changes for that are pretty low... espacially if you have a Bard as a healer. If he suffers the 2 fatigue in the beginning he heals the wounded hero right away (only for 1 damage worth, I know) but the heros almost never thought of that as "killing the heros" in my groups.

If the "tank" attacks he will most likely only get about 2-5 damage even if he looses... which is not enough to be a real game changer if the heros are killing the first monster group in their first round (or almost all monsters at least)... because the Tank will recover in that round at least 1 damage, before he even CAN get new damage...

(--> espacially early into the campaign, because the act I cards do hardly any damage on the heros, except they got a pretty bad dice roll... but that could kill a hero even while fighting against the weakest monster groups in the game...)

This may be a FAQ for this quest, however I'd like to clarify: When Belthir takes flight, can he carry Alric from one point to the other?